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Author Topic: What is NOT good enough... Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 12-31-2003 12:36 PM                     Wow Dennis, you sound like an oldtimer! Good for you! Especially in Vegas. Talk about competition problems! John H, don't throw in the towel just yet. Maybe some us of can keep this industry alive for a few more weeks. Still interested in restoring the booth at CB in Red Bank? One thing I didn't see mentioned, and we would have no control over anyway, is the product. I often wonder why some dimbulb producer decided to invest money in some of these offerings we show.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-01-2004 04:37 PM                     For the most part I believe that the general public either doesn't know a bad presentation when they see it, or they just don't give a damn. They have been so conditioned to accept mediocrity in every thing else that it makes no difference to them. An example of this occurred in my theatre a couple weeks ago. I usually keep a check on the sound monitors and check by going out into the balcony periodically to check in person. That nite on one of the balcony checks there was an extremely loud 120hz hum, it had apparently been masked in the booth by other sounds. No telling how long it had been there. It took a couple additional minutes to locate the faulty ground & cure it. Nobody complained and when the manager offered comp tickets at the end, nobody took any. A few were asked about it and they said it wasn't too bad and only lasted about 10 minutes! This noise drowned out dialogue, truly the hum from hell and nobody complained.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 01-01-2004 05:01 PM                        The 'conventional wisdom' is that customers don't know the difference between good and bad presentation and they won't complain. And I agree..to an extent. It does seem strange that in an era when people are willing to complain about anything and everything, no matter how trivial, they don't seem to complain when "film is done wrong." I've noticed the same thing at live music shows. No one every complains when the sound sucks or when it's so loud, that it's beyond the threshold of pain. However, while people might not complain or might not seem like they care, on a subconscious level I think they definitely do know the difference. And this translates into attending movies less. They'll never say that the presentation is bad, but they just won't feel like going. And as home theater gets better and better, people will just stay home. I was in a CompUSA the other day and some really badly dressed, not too intelligent seeming guy was buying an $8,000 HDTV monitor. Good and proper presentation can never hurt -- it will either make no difference or will help. Bad presentation at least has the possibility of hurting. As for people not wanting a refund or replacement ticket, I remember seeing ET in a major Manhattan theater when it first ran and there was a 60-cycle hum throughout the presentation. The theater was so crowded that I couldn't get out to complain. When it was over, I found the manager and complained. He turned to another employee and said, "oh..he heard the problem." He offered me a ticket to come back, but I didn't want to see it again..and even if I did, I wouldn't have wanted to see it in that theater.  |  IP: Logged Michael Barry Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 584 From: Sydney, NSW, Australia Registered: Nov 1999 posted 01-01-2004 07:26 PM                     quote: Good and proper presentation can never hurt -- it will either make no difference or will help. Bad presentation at least has the possibility of hurting. Nicely put! True - they often don't complain to the theatre. That's the problem! The theatre thinks they've done a job good and thinks, 'We've had no complaints. Let's carry on the way we have been'. They do complain to their friends, on usenet (see above) or maybe they just keep it to themselves. My belief is that everyone can tell the difference. Perhaps they won't pick up the nuances between a reasonable presentation and a slightly better one, but every single person knows the difference between an average presentation and a GREAT one. I wrote a post a lot earlier about a 70MM presentation of '2001' that received multiple lots of praise from the audience. They felt compelled to tell the floor staff how wonderful they thought the presentation was. Not just the movie...the presentation specifically. The point is that you didn't have to be a buff to notice; it was impossible to miss. John Wilson received plenty of write in compliments for his 35MM presentations of 'Titanic' as well, so it can be done! The problem often is that there is no point of reference, and you have to be well trained to know what things should look/sound like to know that things aren't as good as they could be. However, if you had a two-projector changeover setup each loaded with the same reel of a movie, and one had not-so-great brightness and focus and the other one was dead-on, then I'm willing to bet that there wouldn't be a single person alive that a) couldn't tell the difference, and b) would not prefer the better one. It's obvious when there is a reference. However, if your theatre is running optimally, then the audience on some level will know the presentation was good, and would certainly never think that home theatre was better.  |  IP: Logged

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